Julian Assange Reaches Plea Deal With US, Allowing Him To Go Free (cnn.com) 19
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has agreed to a plea deal with the U.S. Justice Department over his alleged role in one of the largest U.S. government breaches of classified material. As a result, he will avoid imprisonment in the United States. CNN reports: Under the terms of the new agreement (pdf), Justice Department prosecutors will seek a 62-month sentence -- which is equal to the amount of time Assange has served in a high-security prison in London while he fought extradition to the US. The plea deal would credit that time served, allowing Assange to immediately return to Australia, his native country. The plea deal must still be approved by a federal judge.
Assange had faced 18 counts from a 2019 indictment for his alleged role in the breach that carried a max of up to 175 years in prison, though he was unlikely to be sentenced to that time in full. Assange was being pursued by US authorities for publishing confidential military records supplied by former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning in 2010 and 2011. US officials alleged that Assange goaded Manning into obtaining thousands of pages of unfiltered US diplomatic cables that potentially endangered confidential sources, Iraq war-related significant activity reports and information related to Guantanamo Bay detainees.
Assange had faced 18 counts from a 2019 indictment for his alleged role in the breach that carried a max of up to 175 years in prison, though he was unlikely to be sentenced to that time in full. Assange was being pursued by US authorities for publishing confidential military records supplied by former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning in 2010 and 2011. US officials alleged that Assange goaded Manning into obtaining thousands of pages of unfiltered US diplomatic cables that potentially endangered confidential sources, Iraq war-related significant activity reports and information related to Guantanamo Bay detainees.
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Assange? What does that mean?
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Sentenced to Transportation. It's how many in both Australia and America got new starts in life.
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Easier to take him out once he is released from prison.
Re:Which weighs more? Facts - some in dispute (Score:1)
It is a fact that Assange leaked the names of confidential sources causing many deaths.
It is alleged that a reporter quoted Assange when he asked Assange if they should redact the names: "Well, they're informants. So, if they get killed, they've got it coming to them. They deserve it."
It is a fact that Assange said he would sue the publisher for libel, under laws at the time that would have greatly favored him.
It is a fact that Assang never carried through with this action.
Draw your own conclusions, but in
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This is a weird debate to try to turn into a pro-Trump political argument.
There have been zero deaths directly linked to Assange's leaks. When asked the Pentagon said "We have yet to see any harm come to anyone in Afghanistan that we can directly tie to exposure in the Wikileaks documents." And given the efforts to charge Assange with a variety of crimes I believe if there was any links it would have been publicised. https://www.bbc.com/news/world... [bbc.com]
On the other hand a large number of CIA informants were
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https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/12... [cnn.com]
*time passes*
https://thehill.com/policy/nat... [thehill.com]
Look, I'm just asking questions here.
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A book full of the usual conspiratorial and hopelessly biased nonsense, I'm sure. Nothing Assange 'exposed' put the U.S. in a negative light in any way whatsoever.
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Lol I feel like I'm the only person online who actually read wikileaks and guys like you talk about it constantly.
I used to know assange before he was famous too.
Smartest move he’s made in (Score:2)
I sincerely hope he gets to go home. The guy is now harmless, and we’ve more than made our point. Freedom is probably within his grasp, if h